It seems like just last year I went to my first home football game.

It was 2011, and a terrible storm paused our eventual win over Montana.

We had so much rain and lightning we were ushered up into the covered part of the stadium and waited it out. Everyone was pushing into each other while still attempting to stay together as a group. It was chaos.

Looking across the river, I saw waves of rain come crashing towards us, obliterating any view of downtown. Even the Henley Street Bridge and the BB&T building downtown were invisible to the naked eye as the wind and the rain swept through Knoxville.

But in the midst of the confusion, as sweaty, angry fans were elbowing each other just to have room to breathe, two young college students forced their way through the crowd, carrying a third.

The barely conscious girl’s head was rolling to the side, her open eyes unable to comprehend what was going on around her. The smell of liquor filled the hole they created as they rushed through.

I never saw the trio again, but it was clear she had alcohol poisoning.

Drinking and tailgates is part of almost every college football fan’s experience, and as such, police have found it easier to look the other way than enforce our dry campus policy on game days.

It makes sense. If police arrested everyone drinking on campus for game day, Neyland Stadium would be half empty on Saturdays. But this isn’t a column about our ridiculous dry campus — it’s a column for new students.

I would be a hypocrite if I told you not to drink before football games. But now on my fifth year, believe me, games are more fun when you can remember them.

If you’re still reading this and find that nothing I’m saying is relevant to you or your friends, then congratulations. Please, carry on with your life because what you’re doing is working. But to those new to the college scene, realize you don’t have to “keep up” when drinking and that being sober(ish) for a game is a normal choice.

While I’m probably not allowed to encourage underage drinking in this column, it would be wrong not to acknowledge that for many students under 21, drinking is a perfectly normal activity that a dry campus policy has not and will not stop.

So the best thing I can do is ask you to be smart.

At the risk of sounding like a helicopter parent or a First Year Studies instructor, there are ways to enjoy yourself in college without being drunk.

Even when you do drink, remember to control yourself and realize what you’re consuming and how much of it you’ve had.

I’m by no means telling you to be boring and sit in your dorm every weekend. For many students, going out is part of the college experience. But this weekend, as tailgating tents go up and beers are cracked open, just remember that moderation is a thing.

That girl at the Montana game wasn’t the first or last person I saw that year succumb to alcohol.

As a former freshman, I understand the fear of missing out. You think that all the upperclassmen are drinking and partying when you’re just watching Netflix on a Friday night. So when you do get invited out, you naturally want to be kid who can handle their liquor, the one that deserves to be invited out again.

But when you feel you have to keep up, you not only put yourself in dangerous situations, but are selling yourself short. No one should care about how much you can drink. They care if you’re fun to hang out with and can carry a conversation.

While drinking is many times part of the experience, your value as a person is much more important than your ability to do a keg stand.

So this weekend, let’s tailgate, have a good time and watch the Vols beat Oklahoma at home. Just be sure you remember the game.

McCord Pagan is a fifth-year senior in journalism and electronic media. He can be reached at [email protected].